6 min readUpdated: Aug 24, 2026 08:51 PM IST
Abid Mushtaq‘s delivery to Prithvi Shaw pitched on middle, held its line long enough for Shaw to commit to it, then spun sharply away to take out off stump. The speed gun read 95kmph, roughly 10kmph quicker than anything the other spinners in the match had bowled. It was, in Mushtaq’s own words, the ball Ravindra Jadeja bowls on this kind of surface, red soil, the kind that lets a left-arm spinner attack the stumps at pace rather than loop it up and wait.
That wicket, on the evening of Day 1, set the tone for what followed. In the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal, after North Zone were shut out for 251, it was Mushtaq who pulled them back into the game, his 5 for 39 helping bowl out West Zone for 187 and hand North a 171-run lead heading into Day 2.
Mushtaq isn’t North Zone’s most visible spinner on a given day. His Jammu & Kashmir teammate Sahil Lotra, an offspinner, usually tops the wicket charts when the surface turns. Mushtaq gets the ball when J&K, or North, need something manufactured rather than just landed in the right areas.
What. A. Ball 😮
Abid Mushtaq with a peach to dismiss Prithvi Shaw 👏
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/cATggoXuky#DuleepTrophy pic.twitter.com/sCkb0vLwpj
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) August 23, 2026
Growing up in Bhaderwah, Mushtaq spent most of his cricket on green tops or low, slow black-soil pitches. Red soil, the kind that lets the ball grip and turn sharply, wasn’t something he had access to until a couple of years ago, when Mithun Manhas took charge of J&K cricket and had a red-soil pitch laid at the association’s home ground.
“I get goosebumps. I get excited,” Mushtaq says of what a red-soil pitch does to him. “Before that it used to be black soil or a green top. It won’t turn one bit. It is the case actually all across north. So when we got a red soil pitch at home, it was fun. When it was laid, I spiked it up so much to make it hard for batsmen,” he says, cheekily.
Abid Mushtaq celebrates after taking a wicket for north Zone against West Zone. (Screengrab: BCCI Domestic X)
His best innings figures, 8 for 18, came on red soil, against Vidarbha in December 2022, part of an 11-wicket match haul. Another 10-wicket match haul followed in Pondicherry, on a similar surface, in February 2024. His 5 for 111 against Madhya Pradesh and 7 for 68 against Hyderabad, both during J&K’s title-winning Ranji campaign, came on red soil too.
Kanhaiya Wadhawan, North Zone’s captain and Mushtaq’s J&K teammate, has kept wicket to him often enough to know what he’s capable of on it. Handing him the new ball on Day 2 wasn’t a gamble. Mushtaq ran through West Zone’s top order in a single morning spell, Shivalik Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Urvil Patel all trapped in front of the stumps. He kept coming at the batsmen ball after ball. They tried using their feet, and tried waiting him out for a length to sweep; he gave them neither. Nishant Sindhu, North’s other left-arm option, bowled only three overs all day, which says as much about Mushtaq’s control of the situation as any figure does.
Five-star performance 🖐️
Watch 📽️ Abid Mushtaq’s fantastic five-wicket haul 🆚 West Zone 🙌
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/cATggoXuky#DuleepTrophy pic.twitter.com/Nfyvv1jViZ
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) August 24, 2026
“It’s natural,” he says of his habit of taking wickets in clusters. “I was trying to bowl at the stumps as there was a lot of help in the wicket. I was trying to give more rotation. When the wicket is red, I get a lot of confidence. I’ve always seen the speed at which Jadeja bhai operates on such tracks. So I try to make it harder for batsmen. When you bowl quick, they can’t sweep me either. And if the pitch is turning, I use the crease a lot and mix it up with the one that turns and the one that goes straight,” he says.
He sent down 25.4 overs in the innings, conceded just 39 runs, and bowled 10 maidens. Rhythm doesn’t come easily to a spinner who isn’t always first-choice, and Mushtaq had spent the off-season auditing at the AG’s office in Srinagar, in weather cold enough to stiffen a bowler’s body before he’s bowled a ball.
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“For me, it’s hot here. My body is always hot. So, I get into the rhythm. I’m trying for lbw and bowled on this pitch. Since it is turning, if I put too much rotation, I will end up getting beaten. So that’s why I’m attacking the stumps more,” Mushtaq says.
With Arshdeep Singh and Anshul Kamboj providing control and the key breakthroughs around him, West Zone folded for 187, Sams Mulani top-scoring with 52. On a surface already showing signs of wear, North came out looking to score quickly in their second innings, going at over five an over to close Day 2 with a sizeable lead in hand.
Brief scores: North Zone 251 & 107/4 (Ayush Badoni 39 n.o.) vs West Zone 187 (Sams Mulani 52; Abid Mushtaq 5/39, Arshdeep Singh 3/53). East Zone 467 (Shahbaz Ahmed 167, Sudip Gharami 146; Pheiroijam Jotin 3/64, Akash Choudhary 3/102) vs North East Zone 111 (Abhijit Sarkar 5/20, Shahbaz Ahmed 3/20) & f/o 7/0.
